I recently had a conversation with someone who thinks one of the biggest issues confronting marketers is losing sight of how advertising and marketing affects real-world- business goals.

I tend to agree.

As someone who enjoys the ins and outs of platforms, analysis, and data, it’s very easy to get lost in the numbers or caught up making small, inconsequential changes.

Keeping business goals top of mind is crucial to client success and, from an agency perspective, client retention.

Sure, you now rank #1 for some keywords. That link placement was on a DA 70 site. Click through rate increased 25%!

But are your ads converting?

Are your efforts profitable?

You’re driving sales, but how do the margins look?

This even comes into play during client proposals and early discussions, especially with e-commerce clients.

I like to find out what the client’s margins are and work out scenarios to demonstrate how campaigns will perform at different levels and metrics. This gives potential clients a better idea of what to expect. These included conservative, moderate, and aggressive estimates.

There are even clients that we’ve talked out of advertising through certain channels because the numbers just didn’t make sense.

Attribution plays a huge role in this process. Some channels (organic, Facebook) do a great job driving awareness, but only play a supporting role in conversion. Are you evaluating assisted conversions before you write off a channel?

It’s crucial to keep business outcomes top of mind when evaluating performance. Share of voice, non-bot traffic, and viewable impressions are great, but are they making you money?